Pubdate: Sat, 10 Mar 2007
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2007 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: The Associated Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Afghanistan
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?236 (Corruption - Outside U.S.)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

AFGHAN ANTICORRUPTION CHIEF SOLD HEROIN IN LAS VEGAS IN '87

KABUL, Afghanistan -- When the deal went down in Las Vegas, the seller
was introduced only as Mr. E. In a room at Caesars Palace hotel, Mr. E
exchanged a pound-and-a-half bag of heroin for $65,000 cash, unaware
that the buyer was an undercover detective. The sting landed him in a
Nevada state prison for nearly four years.

Twenty years later, Mr. E, whose real name is Izzatullah Wasifi, has a
new job. He is the government of Afghanistan's anticorruption chief.

Mr. Wasifi leads a staff of 84 people charged with rooting out the
endemic graft that is fueled in part by the country's position as the
world's largest producer of opium poppy, the raw ingredient of heroin.

President Hamid Karzai's office would not say if the president knew
about the drug conviction when Mr. Wasifi was appointed two months
ago. Mr. Wasifi, 48, a childhood friend of Mr. Karzai's, is the son of
a prominent Afghan nationalist leader.

Mr. Wasifi was arrested at Caesars Palace on July 15, 1987, for
selling 23 ounces of heroin, according to criminal records in Nevada
and California. Prosecutors said the drugs were worth $2 million on
the street.

Mr. Wasifi served three years and eight months in prison before
winning parole.

In an interview in his modest office at the anticorruption bureau in
Kabul, Mr. Wasifi confirmed that he had been imprisoned in Nevada for
a drug offense, although his account of events differed from court
records.

He said he was arrested on the third day of his honeymoon. The woman
who was then his wife, identified in court records as Fereshteh
Behbahani, bought cocaine for her own use in a bar of a Las Vegas
hotel and took it to their room, where they were arrested, he said.

"My wife made an error," said Mr. Wasifi, looking dapper in a navy
suit and waistcoat.

"A lot of people go to Las Vegas for fun and for snuff," he continued,
pointing to his nostril and sniffing. "This thing happened."

In Los Angeles, Mr. Wasifi's ex-wife, Ms. Behbahani, 50, who was
sentenced to three years' probation for conspiring to traffic drugs
with Mr. Wasifi, declined to be interviewed.

Mr. Wasifi was adamant that his drug conviction should not affect his
ability to serve in government in Afghanistan. He compared his
situation to that of President Bush, who was arrested in 1976 for
drunken driving.

"Everybody through their lifetime has done something, fallen somewhere
or done some mistake," Mr. Wasifi said. "That's the only thing I can
say about it."

He pointed to his record as governor of western Farah Province, where
opium production dropped 25 percent during his 14-month tenure.

Counternarcotics officials attributed the drop mostly to drought, but
also to poppy eradication campaigns led by Mr. Wasifi.

In his new job, Mr. Wasifi is charged with tackling bribery and
administrative corruption. Antinarcotics officials in Afghanistan,
speaking on condition of anonymity, say there is no evidence to prove
that Mr. Wasifi is involved in Afghanistan's heroin trade.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake